1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an airbag system for a motorcycle. More particularly, to an airbag system for a motorcycle which is configured to restrict a range where covers of accommodation parts for airbag support belts are removed at the time of swelling and expansion of the airbag.
2. Description of Background Art
There have been studied from the past various devices for applying to a motorcycle an airbag by which a rider is effectively restrained when an impact exceeding a predetermined value is applied to a vehicle body. One point where motorcycles largely differ from four-wheeled vehicles is that a rider is not restrained by a vehicle body through a seat beat or the like. In response to this fact, there is known a method in which one end of a support belt is fixed to a vehicle body and the other end is coupled to an airbag. At the time of swelling and expansion of the airbag, the airbag is supported so as to be pulled from the rear side of the vehicle body.
JP-A No. 2003-327182 discloses an airbag system in which support belts for an airbag are accommodated in a pair of left and right accommodation grooves passing through leg shields, footrest parts, and a rear cover, from a front cover in a scooter-type motorcycle. According to the airbag system, since the support belts support the airbag, it is possible to effectively restrain a rider even when the yawing behavior and the rolling behavior of a vehicle body are large.
In the case where the airbag support belts as described above are applied, it is preferable to provide cover members for accommodation parts in order to protect the accommodation parts from being affected by an extra factor such as weather. However, no descriptions regarding to such cover members are provided in JP-A No. 2003-327182. As a fixing method of the cover members, there is known a method in which a plurality of projections are provided on back surfaces of the cover members so as to be engaged with engaging grooves provided in the accommodation parts. However, when the support belts are pulled out along with swelling and expansion of the airbag, the cover members are likely to drop off from the vehicle body only with such an engaging structure. Thus, there is still room for devising an attachment structure for the cover members.